Review: W3L Action Academy Unleashed

World Wide Wrestling League hosted an afternoon of wrestling at the Action Academy for £5 featuring wrestlers and trainees from W3L, Scottish School of Wrestling and Scottish Wrestling Entertainment then put it on YouTube.

Johnny Lions defeated Leo King by Pinfall.

Started with some back and forth grappling before some brawling into the corner. Ended up outside and Johnny missed a chop and smacked the ring post. King fired up with a headscissors which was a bit dodgy but okay. King took over the offensive working on the left arm of Lions, using an armbar. The match continued to plod along aimlessly, Lions got a comeback and tried his best to get the audience involved but they weren’t giving anything. Lions hit a 619, a highlight of the match, King locked in cross-armbreaker that Lions powered out of, a Lion Cutter saw Johnny Lions get the win.

This wasn’t good, mainly because there was no intensity in the moves and the crowd didn’t care. Leo King didn’t do much and repeated sequences, corner, gut punch, gut punch, thrust. No clear cut wrestler to cheer or boo. It meandered along until it ended. Not a good start.

Craig Stephens defeated Spike Tierney by Pinfall.

So Craig Stephens is the bad guy, mouthed off a bit and was all aggressive in the ring. Punching and kicking at Spike. The match stalled with headlocks and filler along with missed moves and stumbling about. Spike’s beat down seemed to last an age, far too long. After a fleeting comeback from Spike, Stephens hit a double arm DDT to win.

The match felt pointless. Stephens spent most of the time kicking and punching, cutting off the 10 seconds of Spike’s offense then punching and kicking then throwing on a headlock. Watching this made me think that Craig Stephens thinks he is a better wrestler than he really is.

The trio cut a promo before the match, couldn’t hear it. So we had a handicap match, for some reason. Some brawling to start off with, the baddies hammered Williams for a while. John Kerr looked the most polished out of the three while Matt Black and Umar Mohammed looked to have dressed in the dark, Umar’s footwear was a sore sight, looking like they were playing wrestler. Williams finally tagged in Jeremi who hit the worst looking spinebuster on Matt Black onto Umar Mohammed. Jeremi turned Black over with a Boston Crab and Williams got Kerr in a Figure Four Leglock for the double tap out.

With a lack of crowd interaction it’s just horrible to watch. Mohammed and Black didn’t look ready to be wrestling in front of paying customers.

The Tormentor defeated Euan G Mackie by Pinfall.

I love Euan G Mackie, he mocked The Tormentor before getting started, lampooning the match throughout to the sound of silence. Mackie was on the offensive, hitting a lovely leg drop for two. Euan Mackie couldn’t save this match as Tormentor’s shoddy sunset flip and DDT tormented me. After Mackie was beating Tormentor throughout, Tormentor finally got some offense then broke his own pin for reasons then he hit a front slam for the three count to polite applause.

There’s always joy to be had during a Euan G Mackie match, anything involving The Tormentor was pretty bad though.

Kaiden King defeated Kay Balfour by Pinfall.

Kay Balfour came out to no music, I think I could hear traffic. The crowd woke from their slumber for the first time when Kaiden King came out. A little back and forth early on but it got sloppy fast, like two boys scrapping outside the pub after watching the UFC, throwing out the moves with their tops off. Balfour had a nice roundhouse kick and the follow up double foot stomp only got a two count. A ripcord codebreaker landed too close to the ropes for Balfour to get the win. A second attempt was ducked into a Claymore kick for a Kaiden King win.

Not the worst match on the show but it was scrappy as anything.

Euan G Mackie Won The Over The Top Rumble

Entry Order:

Craig Stephens

Johnny Lions

Umar Mohammed

Spike Tierney

Euan G Mackie

Dave Jeremi

Leo King

Kevin Williams

John Kerr

The Tormentor

Kay Balfour

Matt Black

Kaiden King

Elimination Order:

Johnny Lions by Euan G Mackie

Umar Mohammed by Kevin Williams

John Kerr by Kevin Williams

Dave Jeremi by Leo King

Spike Tierney by The Tormentor

Kevin Williams by Kay Balfour

Leo King by The Tormentor

Matt Black by Kay Balfour & Craig Stephens

Kaiden King by Kay Balfour

Kay Balfour by The Tormentor

Craig Stephens by The Tormentor

The Tormentor by Euan G Mackie

A pedestrian rumble to finish this disappointing event. Euan G Mackie hid under the ring for most of the match then popped in to hit The Tormentor with a chair then threw him out to win.

I saw the ring announcers arse crack twice right on camera. He needed a mic and notes, definitely something to keep his hands occupied. Looked like he was doing it on the fly and stuttered through every explanation before each match. No idea what he said as the sound was awful. There looked to be little preparation, the camera angle was warped, the crowd were mild throughout. The matches were awful. It’s a shame seeing guys I like, like Johnny Lions, Kevin Williams and Euan G Mackie, attempting to drag some sort of passable match out of these guys but failing. Might have been the worst wrestling show I have ever watched and it took me two attempts to get through it.